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Topic: New Beekeepers in Oakland, CA (Read 1332 times)

My husband and I just started keeping bees. We've had a hive living in the master bedroom wall of our house for 5 or 6 years (dont ask!) and in April this year, they started swarming. My husband thought it would be a great opportunity to start keeping real hives, so he captured the first swarm, and we went out and got a (deep) bee box. A week later the hive swarmed again - so we got another box.

The really fun thing is that I started hearing the queen and virgin queen piping in the wall just before the second swarm. I thought it was my husband playing with a duck call down stairs, till I overheard a bee keeper describing the sound when we bought the second box. Just after the 2nd swarm, I heard the piping again, and sure enough about a week later there was a third swarm. And another bee box in our back yard.

So, we now have three hives (the hive in the house swarmed a 4th time, but they returned to the house hive after about a day, thank goodness!).

Its been a lot of fun and we are learning alot! The third hive lost its queen -possibly in the process of the swarm being captured. We noticed the bees making queen cells after a couple weeks, and the hive did not grow as fast as the first two. But a few more weeks, and we started seeing brood cells, so all is good.I already have lots of quetions and look forward to getting advice, and learning from everyone!

Welcome to the forum,Queenbe and Hubby. There are threads and videos here to learn from. You can also check into a local bee club, I can't remember if Kirk Anderson is in Oakland or La. He is in backward beekeeping.com, I like his you tube videos. Good luck with your bees.